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OUNDED  BV  JOHN   D.  ROCKEFELLER 


l^EAUMAliCHATS  AND  PLAUTUS 


1HK  SO!  RCES  OF  THE  BARBTKR  T)E  SEVILLE 


A   DISSERTATION 


I 

LITEKATUKK 
PHILOSOi 


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I  in  2008  with  funding  from  I 
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\RTS  AND 
ICTOR  OF 


LORENCK    Nit  liTINCULE  JONJ'S 


CHiCAUU 

SCOTT,   ^'f)]^'^SMAN  A'^T)  r^^TAlPAVN- 

1908 


ttp://www.archive.org/details/beaumarchaisplauOOjonerii 


Zbc  'ClnivcrsttB  ot  Cblcaflo 

FOUNDED  BY  JOHN   D.  ROCKEFELLER 


BEAUMARCHAIS  AI^D  PLAUTUS 

THE  SOURCES  OF  THE  BARBIEE  DE  SEVILLE 


A   DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND 

LITERAT^URE  IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF 

PHILOSOPHY,  DEPARTMENT  OF  ROMANCE  LANGUAGES 


BY 

FLORENCE  NIGHTINGALE  JONES 


CHICAGO 

SCOTT,  FORESMAN  AND  COMPANY 

1908 


V 


BEAUMAEOHAIS  AIsTD  PLAUTUS 
LE  BARBIER  DE  SEVILLE 

On  the  title  page  of  Reinhardstoettner's  monumental  work  on 
the  imitations  of  Plautus  in  the  dramatic  literature  of  Europe 
might  well  be  written  the  warning:  lasciate  ogni  speranza,  'abandon 
all  hope'  of  finding  a  play  of  which  the  plot  was  not  first  conceived 
by  Plautus.  Be  prepared  to  find  that  Falstaff  strutted  about  and 
Scapin  played  his  tricks  in  the  days  of  Scipio  Africanus,  that  Shak- 
spere  and  Moliere,  together  with  nearly  every  other  writer  of  plays 
since  the  middle  ages,  have  all  been  to  a  greater  or  less  extent, 
plagiarists  of  Plautus. 

In  many  cases  there  has  been  direct,  unmistakable  imitation  of 
a  whole  play  of  Plautus,  such  as  the  Clizia  of  Macchiavelli,  imitated 
from  the  Casina;  Shakspere's  Comedy  of  Errors,  from  the  Menae- 
chmi;  Moliere's  At  are,  from  the  Aulularia,  and  Lessing's  Der  Schatz, 
from  the  Trinummus.  Often  a  single  scene  from  Plautus  has  fur- 
nished a  later  playwright  with  material  for  a  whole  comedy,  as  in 
the  case  of  Regnard,  whose  Serenade  is  nothing  but  an  amplifica-, 
tion  of  the  second  scene  of  the  fourth  act  of  the  Pseudolus. 

Plautus,  it  appears,  is  the  chef  who  first  discovered  the  art  of 
concocting  a  Latin  comedy.  To  the  old  Roman  satura  he  added 
the  '  attic  salt '  of  Menander  and  Diphilus  and  thus  produced  a  dish 
fit  for  Roman  senators.  Then  for  centuries  the  secret  of  comedy 
making  was  lost,  until,  with  the  Renaissance,  the  Latin  authors 
were  resurrected  and  the  playwrights  of  the  sixteenth  century 
jumbled  together  scenes  and  characters  from  Plautus  to  form  the 
olla  podrida  of  Italian  comedy.  Their  example  was  followed  by  all 
the  playwriters  of  Europe,  each  adding  to  his  Plautine  model  the 
flavor  of  his  own  individuality  and  nationality. 

In  the  history  of  French  dramatic  literature,  the  influence  of 
Seneca  in  tragedy,  and  of  Plautus  in  comedy,  is  to  be  reckoned  with 
from  the  very  start.  In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  there 
took  place,  mainly  through  the  influence  of  the  members  of  the 

3 


183471 


4  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

Pleiade,  that  break  in  the  history  of  the  indigenous  French  drama 
which  was  marked  by  the  waning  popularity  of  the  moraUties  and 
mystery  plays  and  the  introduction  of  classical  models.  In  1567, 
De  Baif  gave  a  representation  of  the  Miles  Gloriosus  of  Plautus, 
under  the  title  of  Le  Brave,  in  the  Hotel  de  Guise,  before  the  King. 
Close  upon,  De  Baif  came  Larivey  with  half  a  dozen  plays  imitated 
from  Plautus.  In  the  seventeenth  century,  Rotrou,  Corneille,  and 
Moliere  all  drew  upon  Plautus,  as  also  did  Regnard  at  the  very  close 
of  the  century. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  spite  of  some 
isolated  attempts  at  imitation  by  Destouches,  the  tradition  that 
Plautus  should  be  the  model  for  comedy  was  practically  disregarded. 
Classical  tragedy  had  long  since  passed  away  and  its  mourners  were 
consoling  themselves  with  the  comedie  larmoyante,  Moliere  and  Reg- 
nard, with  their  frank  imitations  of  Plautus,  were  gone  and  mari- 
vaudage  held  the  stage.  Just  before  the  Revolution,  however,  a 
comedy  appeared  of  which  the  hero  was  the  traditional  valet  of 
comedy,  the  evolutionized  slave  of  the  Plautine  play,  arrived  at 
the  last  degree  of  ingenuity  and  insolence,  the  witty,  resourceful, 
impudent  Figaro.  Once  more  the  echo  of  the  ironical  laugh  of 
Plautus  was  heard,  as  Beaumarchais,  after  uttering  his  gibes  at  the 
nobility,  through  the  mouth  of  Figaro,  turned  to  the  audience  with 
a  mocking  nunc  plaudite.  Soon  after,  both  Plautus  and  the  ancien 
regime  were  driven  off  the  stage  by  the  stern  tragedy  of  the  French 
Revolution. 

It  is  strange  that  Reinhardstoettner,  in  his  search  for  borrow- 
ings from  Plautus,  should  have  failed  to  notice  the  striking  resem- 
blance between  the  Figaro  comedies  of  Beaumarchais  and  certain 
plays  of  Plautus,  a  resemblance  which  was  remarked  upon  by 
Naudet  in  his  edition  of  Plautus  published  in  1831.  In  his  intro- 
duction to  the  Casina,  Naudet  calls  attention  to  the  striking  simi- 
larity in  plot  between  this  play  and  the  Mariage  de  Figaro.  Some- 
what later  Marc-Monnier  in  his  Aieux  de  Figaro,  traces  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  modern  valet  of  comedy  and  remarks,  in  regard  to  the 
hero  of  the  Casina  "mais  il  est  6pris  d'une  esclave  de  sa  femme, 
d'une  Casina,  sur  laquelle  il  reclamerait  volontiers  les  droits  du 
seigneur.  A  cet  effet,  il  veut  la  marier  a  I'esclave  Olympion.  II 
s'agit  en  un  mot  d'un  Almaviva  de  I'ancienne  Rome  amoureux 
d'une  Suzanne."     Nisard  in  his  Theatre  des  Latins  is  the  first  to 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  5 

call  attention  to  the  resemblance  between  the  Miles  Gloriosus  and 
the  Barhier  de  Seville. 

'^PyrgopoUnices  reunit  la  fatuite  a  la  jactance  militaire.  Son 
rare  merite  ne  Tempeche  pas  d'etre  trompe  par  une  jeune  fille  qu'il 
a  enlevee  et  qu'il  tient  sous  clef  comme  nos  tuteurs.  L' evasion  de 
la  jeune  fille  est  secondee  par  un  amant  et  surtout  par  Tesclave 
Palaestrion,  un  des  plus  dignes  ancetres  de  Figaro." 

It  is  true  that  Reinhardstoettner  admits  that  there  is  a  general 
resemblance  in  character  between  Figaro  and  the  intriguing  slave 
of  Latin  comedy,  but  no  attempt  is  made  to  show  that  Beaumar- 
chais  imitated  any  particular  play  of  Plautus.  He  agrees  with 
Sommer,  a  French  translator  of  Plautus,  in  refusing  to  consider  the 
serenade  scene  at  the  beginning  of  the  Barhier  de  Seville  as  an  imita- 
tion of  the  first  three  scenes  of  the  Curculio.  He  regards  as  equally 
far-fetched  a  comparison  made  by  Sainte-Beuve  between  a  passage 
describing  Suzanne  and  a  sentence  from  the  Truculentus  of  Plautus. 
Thus  Reinhardstoettner,  who  has  arraigned  nearly  every  play- 
wright of  every  country  and  of  every  time  as  an  imitator  of  Plautus, 
is  inclined  to  be  lenient  toward  Beaumarchais,  whose  name  occurs 
only  three  times  in  his  index  plagiatorum. 

While  this  striking  similarity  between  the  two  above  mentioned 
plays  of  Plautus  and  those  of  Beaumarchais  has  thus  been  remarked 
by  several  editors  and  students  of  Plautus,  by  none  of  them  has  it 
been  suggested  that  Beaumarchais  deliberately  took  Plautus  as  his 
model;  the  similarity  in  plot  has  been  treated  as  accidental  rather 
than  intentional.  Yet  there  is  no  reason  why  Beaumarchais,  follow- 
ing the  example  of  other  dramatic  authors,  should  not  have  taken 
Plautus  as  his  model.  The  real  question  to  be  decided  is  whether 
the  similarity  in  plot  and  detail  is  sufficient  to  warrant  this  assump- 
tion. When  this  is  once  settled,  the  motives  and  the  circumstances 
which  led  Beaumarchais  to  seek  this  source  for  his  comedies  can 
easily  be  explained. 

Before  entering  upon  a  detailed  comparison  between  the  Miles 
Gloriosus  and  the  Barhier  de  Seville,  it  is  necessary  to  understand 
clearly  what  is  meant  by  a  working  over  or  imitation  of  a  Plautine 
comedy.  Sometimes  the  mere  substitution  of  French  names  of 
characters  and  places  and  the  translation  of  ancient  conditions  of 
life  into  modern  terms,  such  as  substituting  a  valet  for  a  slave, 
was  sufficient  to  produce  a  play  which  was  listened  to  by  persons 


b  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

fairly  well  acquainted  with  Greek  and  Latin  authors  with  no  suspi- 
cion that  they  were  listening  to  a  disguised  Latin  comedy.  But 
often  the  playwright  was  not  content  with  a  mere  translation,  he 
left  out  several  scenes,  sometimes  a  whole  act,  added  a  character 
which  was  not  found  in  the  original,  invented  incidents  and  local 
hits;  in  fact,  merely  used  the  Latin  play  as  a  framework  on  which 
to  hang  his  own  invention.  Sometimes  he  even  went  further  and 
combined  two  plays  of  Plautus  to  form  one,  as  in  the  case  of  Shak- 
spere,  who  took  the  well-worn  ''twin"  plot  from  the  Menaechmi  of 
Plautus  and  combined  with  it  the  plot  of  the  Amphitryon  in  his 
Comedy  of  Errors. 

In  comparing  the  Barhier  de  Seville  with  the  Miles  Gloriosus  it 
is  true  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  Barhier  which  corresponds  to 
the  first  act  of  the  Miles,  that  in  which  the  braggart  soldier  boasts 
of  his  military  prowess,  but  if  the  French  play  be  compared  with 
the  remaining  four  acts  of  the  Latin  play,  it  is  easy  to  see  the  resem- 
blance which  struck  Nisard.  The  plot  of  the  Miles  is  as  follows: 
A  young  Athenian,  Pleusides  by  name,  has  fallen  in  love  with  a 
young  slave  girl  named  Philocomasium.  While  the  young  Athenian 
was  away  on  an  embassy,  the  soldier,  Pyrgopolinices,  kidnapped 
the  girl  and  carried  her  off  to  Ephesus.  Palaestrion,  the  slave  of 
Pleusides,  set  out  to  announce  this  news  to  his  master,  but  on  his 
way  was  captured  by  pirates  and  brought  to  Ephesus  where  he 
serves  the  soldier  as  his  slave.  The  Athenian,  to  whom  Palaestrion 
has  contrived  to  send  word  what  has  happened,  comes  to  Ephesus 
and  lodges  in  the  house  of  a  bachelor  friend,  Periplecomenes,  whose 
house  adjoins  that  of  the  soldier.  This  neighbor  very  obligingly 
makes  an  opening  from  his  house  into  the  room  occupied  by  the 
Athenian  girl  in  the  soldier's  house.  By  this  means  the  two  lovers 
are  enabled  to  have  frequent  interviews.  The  soldier's  slave, 
Sceledrus,  while  hunting  for  a  stray  monkey  on  the  neighbor's  roof, 
sees  the  two  lovers  in  the  court  below.  The  slave,  Palaestrio, 
makes  the  Athenian  girl  pass  back  to  her  room  by  means  of  the 
secret  opening  and  then  reappear  before  the  eyes  of  Sceledrus, 
who  is  thus  made  to  believe  that  he  has  seen  her  twin  sister.  Now 
comes  the  turn  of  the  soldier  to  be  duped.  The  bachelor  friend 
finds  a  courtesan  who  is  to  act  the  part  of  his  wife  and  pretend  to 
have  fallen  in  love  with  the  soldier.  The  latter,  flattered  by  her 
attentions,  is  now  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the  Athenian  girl  and  con- 


THE    SOURCES    OF    THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  7 

sents  to  send  her  home  to  her  mother.  The  lover  enters  the  soldier's 
house,  disguised  as  a  ship  captain,  and  aided  in  every  possible  way 
by  the  unsuspecting  soldier,  succeeds  in  carrying  off  his  mistress. 
As  soon  as  they  are  gone,  the  bachelor  friend  with  his  servants, 
falls  upon  the  soldier,  beats  him  with  clubs  and  accuses  him  of 
having  seduced  his  wife.  The  soldier  perceives  too  late  that  he 
has  been  the  unwitting  instrument  of  the  girl's  escape  with  her  lover. 

In  the  Barhier  de  Seville,  as  in  the  Miles  Gloriosus,  the  valet  or 
servant  meets  his  former  master  in  a  town  remote  from  the  one 
in  which  they  have  formerly  known  each  other.  Figaro  informs 
his  master,  the  Count  Almaviva,  that  Bartholo  has  carried  off 
Rosine  from  Madrid,  where  the  Count  had  seen  her  and  fallen  in 
love  with  her.  Almaviva  decides  to  try  to  carry  her  off  and  marry 
her  and  Figaro  promises  to  assist  him.  Bartholo  is  informed  by 
Bazile,  Rosine's  music  master,  that  the  Count  Almaviva  is  in  town, 
evidently  in  search  of  Rosine.  In -spite  of  all  Bartholo's  precau- 
tions the  Count  succeeds  in  entering  the  guardian's  house  twice, 
first  in  the  disguise  of  a  soldier  and  later  as  a  pretended  pupil  of 
Bazile,  who  claims  that  he  has  been  sent  to  give  a  lesson  to  Rosine 
as  a  substitute  for  his  master  who  is  ill.  Bazile  now  appears  and 
is  mystified  at  finding  his  pretended  substitute  there  in  his  place. 
Then  occurs  the  famous  ^'allez  vous  coucher"  scene  in  which  Bazile 
is  made  the.  butt  of  ridicule  of  the  whole  company.  Bartholo  now 
appeals  to  Rosine's  jealousy  by  pretending  that  Almaviva  has 
betrayed  her,  and  Rosine  herself  informs  Bartholo  of  the  plot  to 
carry  her  off  that  night.  Almaviva  and  Figaro  now  enter  the  house 
by  means  of  a  ladder.  Rosine  quickly  becomes  reconciled  to  the 
Count  and  is  preparing  to  flee,  when  Figaro  announces  that  the 
ladder  has  been  removed  by  Bartholo.  The  notary,  who  has  been 
sent  for  by  Bartholo  to  marry  himself  and  Rosine^  how,  in  Bartholo's 
absence,  marries  Rosine  to  the  Count  Almaviva,  believing  him  to 
be  Bartholo,  who  now  arrives  with  some  police  officers  to  arrest 
Figaro  and  his  master.  The  police  are  now  informed  b}^  Almaviva 
of  Bartholo's  design  to  gain  possession  of  his  ward's  dowry  by 
marrying  her  and  they  soundly  reprimand  him.  The  play  ends 
exactly  as  does  the  Miles  Gloriosus,  with  the  guardian's  confession 
that  he  has  been  outwitted  and  has  himself  been  the  instrument 
of  his  own  undoing. 

It  is  evident  from  this  cursory  comparison  of  the  two  plays 


8  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

that  several  episodes  of  the  Miles  do  not  appear  in  the  Barhier  de 
Seville.  The  entire  first  act  of  the  Miles  which  has  been  the  source 
of  innumerable  ''boastful  soldier"  plays,  is  entirely  omitted  in  the 
French  play,  as  is  also  the  episode  of  the  lost  monkey  and  the  hole 
in  the  wall  connecting  the  two  houses  which  serves  to  help  carry 
on  the  intrigue  in  the  Latin  play.  However,  these  are  unimportant 
episodes  in  the  Latin  play.  In  all  their  essential  elements  the 
two  plays  have  the  same  plot.  Master  and  man  meet  each  other 
in  a  town  far  from  the  place  where  they  once  lived.  The  master 
learns  that  the  young  lady  with  whom  he  is  in  love  has  been  forcibly 
abducted  by  her  guardian,  who  intends  to  force  her  to  marry  him. 
Just  as  the  slave  Palaestrion  has  become  a  member  of  the  house- 
hold of  the  enemy,  i.e.,  of  the  soldier,  so  has  Figaro  become  attached 
to  Barthoio's  house  as  his  barber,  which  gives  him  access  to  the 
house  and  enables  him  to  aid  the  Count,  his  former  master,  more 
effectually.  In  the  Latin  play,  the  lover  in  disguise,  enters  the 
house  of  the  soldier  and  carries  on  a  conversation  with  the  young 
girl  under  the  very  eyes  of  her  guardian.  Beaumarchais  makes 
his  hero  enter  the  house  twice,  each  time  in  a  different  disguise. 
In  order  to  facilitate  this  Plautus  adopts  the  device  of  making  the 
Puer  or  slave  drunk.  Beaumarchais  makes  Figaro,  in  his  char- 
acter of  apothecary  and  barber,  resort  to  drugs  to  gain  entrance 
to  Barthoio's  house — he  gives  a  narcotic  to  L'Eveille  and  a  sternu- 
tatory to  the  aged  La  Jeunesse  who  is  perhaps  the  Puer  of  Plautus 
reincarnated.  Finally,  in  both  plays,  it  is  the  guardian  who  un- 
wittingly aids  in  the  escape  of  his  ward.  Bartholo  himself,  like 
the  soldier,  has  only  himself  to  blame  for  the  escape  of  the  lovers. 
"  Et  moi  qui  leur  ai  enleve  Techelle  pour  que  le  mariage  fut  plus  sur." 
The  number  of  principal  characters  is  the  same  in  both  com- 
edies. The  guardian,  in  the  one  play,  is  a  boastful  soldier,  in  the 
other,  an  avaricious  doctor.  The  ward,  in  both  plays,  is  a  pre- 
tended ingenue.  The  lover  is  of  high  rank,  but  unresourceful, 
depending  almost  wholly  upon  his  valet  to  get  him  out  of  diffi- 
culties. The  valet  is  the  real  hero,  both  in  Plautus  and  Beaumar- 
chais. To  this  conventional  quartet  is  added  a  fifth  character, 
that  of  the  niais,  or  simpleton.  In  the  Miles  this  part  is  played 
by  the  slave  Sceledrus  whose  duty  it  is  to  guard  Philocomasium, 
in  the  Barhier,  it  is  Bazile,  the  music  master,  who  is  stupid  and 
easily  imposed  upon,  while  in  the  ordinary  Tuteur  a  clef  comedy,  it 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  9 

is  the  guardian  himself  who  is  easily  duped.  Another  character- 
istic which  the  two  comedies  have  in  common  is  that  the  heroine 
plays  her  part  unaided  by  any  serving  maid  who  may  act  the  role 
of  confidante.  Philocomasium,  it  is*  true,  consults  with  the  cour- 
tesan, but  she  does  not  depend  upon  her  to  any  extent.  Rosine, 
too,  acts  her  part  entirely  without  feminine  aid,  even  that  of  a 
duenna. 

The  officers  of  the  police  who  fall  upon  the  guardian  in  the 
Barhier  de  Seville  are  paralleled  by  the  servants  of  Periplecomenes 
in  the  Latin  play,  who  inflict  summary  punishment  on  the  soldier 
— with  blows  instead  of  warrants. 

When  it  comes  to  the  question  of  verbal  resemblances,  the 
Barhier  de  Seville  is  full  of  expressions  which  certainly  suggest 
a  close  acquaintance  on  the  part  of  Beaumarchais  with  the  Latin 
play.  The  description  of  the  soldier  Pyrgopolinices,  gloriosus, 
impvdens,  plenus  injurii  atque  adulteri  [M.G.,  II-l.]  is  closely  par- 
alleled by  the  description  of  Doctor  Bartholo — Brutal,  avare,  amour- 
eux  et  jaloux  [B.  S.,  1-4].  So  also  just  as  the  slave  girl  Philocoma- 
sium is  said  to  hate  the  soldier,  neque  pejus  quemquam  odisse  quam 
istunc  militem  [M.  G.,  II-l.]  Rosine  cherishes  toward  her  guar- 
dian, a  mortal  hatred,  ^^  Sa  pupille,  qui  la  hait  d  la  morV^ — B.  S.,  1-4. 
The  description,  too,  which  Plautus  gives  of  the  slave  Sceledrus, 
liomo  haud  magni  pretii,  glaucomam  oh  oculos  ohjiciemus,  M.  G.,  II-L 
must  have  suggested  to  Beaumarchais  the  description  of  Bazile, 
"  Un  pauvre  here,  et  dont  il  sera  facile  de  venir  a  hout,"  B.  S.,  1-6. 
The  sentiments  in  regard  to  women,  uttered  by  the  bachelor  Periple- 
comenes in  his  famous  diatribe  against  married  life  seem  to  have 
been  utilized  by  Beaumarchais  with  reference  to  Rosine.  Woman, 
according  to  Periplecomenes — "  Domi  hahet  os,  linguam,  perfidiam, 
malitiam,^^  and  half  a  dozen  other  vices,  which  are  summed  up 
in  Figaro's  cynical  remark:  ''Oh  ces  femmes!  voulez  vous  donner 
de  Tadresse  a  la  plus  ingenue?  enfermez — la." 

Another  case  of  similarity  of  expression  under  like  circum- 
stances is  found  in  the  outburst  of  Periplecomenes  against  the  slave 
Sceledrus,  who,  while  hunting  on  the  roof  for  a  pet  monkey,  has 
looked  down  into  the  neighbor's  court  and  discovered  Philocoma- 
sium and  her  lover  together.  "  Mihi  quidem  jam  arhitri  vicini 
sunt  meae  quid  fiat  domi,'^  exclaims  the  old  man,  just  as  Bartholo 
breaks  out  into  imprecations  when  he  discovers  that  Figaro  has 


10  '  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

had  an  interview  with  Rosine.  ^'Ah!  malediction!  Tenrage,  le 
scelerat  corsaire  de  Figaro:  " et  personne  a  V antichambre^  on  arrive 
a  cet  appartement  comnie  a  la  place  d^armes.'^ 

The  scene  in  the  Latin  play  in  which  the  soldier  permits  the 
lover,  in  the  disguise  of  a  ship  captain,  to  enter  his  house,  is  very 
much  like  the  corresponding  scene  in  the  French  play.  Philo- 
comasium,  with  a  cleverness  of  acting  which  reminds  one  strongly 
of  Rosine,  pretends  to  regret  her  separation  from  the  soldier  and 
makes  a  pretence  of  fainting  away  in  order  to  get  an  opportunity 
to  prompt  her  lover  as  to  the  part  he  is  to  play.  The  soldier  orders 
water  to  be  brought,  but  his  suspicions  are  aroused,  as  is  shown  by 
his  remark,  "capita  inter  se  nimis  nexa  hisce  hahent.^'  M.  G.,  IV-8. 
In  the  Barhier  de  Seville,  Rosine  on  a  similar  occasion  gives  as  an 
excuse  for  her  agitation,  "le  pied  m'a  tourne,''  and  Bartholo,  who  like 
the  soldier,  is  suspicious  of  the  actions  of  the  two  lovers,  reproaches 
Figaro,  who  is  shaving  him,  for  trying  to  put  himself  between  him 
and  them  in  order  to  conceal  their  manoeuvres.  "  II  me  semble 
que  vous  le  fassiez  expres  de  vous  approcher  et  de  vous  mettre 
devant  moi  pour  m'empecher  de  voir."     B.   S.,  III-4. 

The  most  striking  verbal  resemblance  between  the  two  plays, 
however,  is  that  of  the  'left  eye.''  The  lover  of  Philocomasium  has 
entered  the  soldier's  house  in  the  disguise  of  a  ship  master  to  carry 
the  girl  home  to  her  mother.  The  soldier  notices  that  the  pre- 
tended sailor  has  a  bandage  over  the  left  eye  and  asks  him  sud- 
denly, "Quid  factum  tuo  oculof  at  laevum  dicof — M.  G.,  IV-7. 
In  the  Barhier  de  Seville,  Figaro,  in  order  to  keep  Bartholo  from 
seeing  the  two  lovers  as  they  talk  together,  pretends  that  he  has 
something  In  his  eye  and  calls  upon  Bartholo  to  help  him  remove  it. 

Bartholo — Qu'est-ce  que  c'est? 

Figaro — Je  ne  sais  ce  qui  m'est  entre  dans  I'oeil. 

Bartholo — Ne  frottez  done  pas. 

Figaro— C'est  le  gauche.— B.  S.,  III-12. 

It  is  certainly  a  striking  coincidence  that  the  'left  eye'  should 
be  mentioned  in  both  plays  and  under  similar  circumstances.  There 
seems  to  be  no  especial  significance  attached  to  the  use  of  the  expres- 
sion in  the  Barhier,  it  may  then  be  simply  a  reminiscence  of  Plautus. 
The  scene  in  which  this  expression  is  used  is  that  one  in  the  Barhier 
which  most  of  all  resembles  the  scene  of  the  disguised  lover  in  the 
Miles  Gloriosus.     It  is  used  in  close  connection  with  the  remark 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  11 

made  by  Bartholo  that  Figaro  hinders  him  from  seeing  the  two 
lovers  who  are  talking  with  each  other,  just  as  the  soldier,  in  the 
Latin  play  has  his  suspicions  aroused  by  a  similar  manoeuvre  on 
the  part  of  the  lovers. 

Finally,  may  not  an  expression  which  Palaestrion  uses  in  regard 
to  the  soldier  have  suggested  to  Beaumarchais  the  title,  Bar- 
hier  de  Seville.  The  slave  Palaestrion,  who  like  Figaro,  has  by 
his  stratagems,  got  the  better  of  the  soldier  and  enabled  his  master 
to  succeed  in  carrying  off  Philocomasium,  remarks  at  the  end  of 
the  play,  that  he  has  deruncinavit,  i.e.,  shaved  the  soldier,  figur- 
atively, of  course,  just  as  Figaro  both  literally  and  figuratively 
'shaved'  Doctor  Bartholo. 

If  the  close  relationship  between  the  Barhier  and  the  Miles 
still  seems  doubtful,  let  French  names  be  substituted  for  Latin 
ones.  Let  the  soldier,  Pyrgopolinices  be  divested  of  his  sword 
and  provided  with  a  doctor's  lancet  and  we  have  the  Doctor  Bar- 
tholo, who  probably  killed  more  persons  in  his  lifetime  by  means 
of  his  drugs  than  did  the  soldier,  Pyrgopolinices,  who  boasted 
that  he  had  killed. 

Centum  in  Cilicia 
Et  quinquaginta.  Centum  in  Cryplaolathronia. 
Triginta  Sardis,  sexaginta  Macedones. 

Give  Philocomasium  the  name  of  Rosine,  put  her  behind  a 
balconied  window  in  Seville  and  she  will  be  able  to  outwit  her 
guardian  with  the  same  success  and  without  even  the  aid  of  a  serv- 
ing maid.  As  for  Pleusides  and  Palaestrion,  master  and  man, 
they  are  as  precious  a  pair  of  rascals  in  Plautus  as  in  Beaumar- 
chais. From  the  Miles  Gloriosus — the  earliest  guardian  and  ward 
play  in  Latin  literature  to  the  latest  guardian  and  ward  play  in 
French  literature  there  is  more  difference  in  time  than  difference 
in  plot.     [See  note  2.] 

From  this  consideration  of  the  two  plays  it  is  evident  that  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  the  Barhier  de  Seville  may  have  been  modeled 
upon  the  Miles  Gloriosus.  That  a  'guardian  and  ward'  comedy 
of  the  approved  conventional  type  could  easily  be  evolved  from 
this  play,  is  shown  in  the  case  of  Cailhava,  a  contemporary  of  Beau- 
marchais, who  in  1765  brought  out  a  play  entitled  Le  Tuteur  Dupe, 
which  is  by  the  express  avowal  of  the  author  an  imitation  of  the 
Miles  Gloriosus  of  Plautus.     This  play  was   afterward  put  upon 


12  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

the  stage  again  in  1773.  That  the  piece  obtained  sufficient  suc- 
cess to  be  well  known  to  playgoers  and  consequently  to  Beaumar- 
chais,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  is  favorably  mentioned  by  Grimm, 
in  his  Correspondance  Litteraire  who  declares  that  it  has  the  merit 
of  being  gaie.  It  is,  therefore,  peMectly  possible  that  Beaumar- 
chais,  who  up  to  this  time  had  been  an  unsuccessful  playwright,  a 
mere  imitator  of  Diderot,  seeing  the  success  which  Cailhava  had 
obtained  from  his  adaptation  of  the  Miles,  should  conceive  the 
idea  of  trying  his  hand  also  at  working  over  a  Latin  play.  The 
Barbier  de  Seville  was  first  composed  toward  the  end  of  the  year 
4773  as  a  comic  opera,  having  almost  nothing  of  the  character  which' 
it  finally  assumed.  The  Barbier  de  Seville,  in  its  final  form,  that 
with  which  we  are  familiar,  made  its  first  appearance  at  the 
Comedie  Frangaise,  February  23,  1775 — just  two  years  after  the 
revival  of  Cailhava' s  Tuteur  Dupe  and  resembles  it  closely  in 
character. 

In  the  preface  to  the  Tuteur  Dupe,  Cailhava  describes  his  method 
of  procedure  in  adapting  the  Latin  play  to  modern  conditions,  so 
as  to  make  of  it  the  conventional  'guardian  and  ward  comedy.' 
The  description  is  interesting  as  showing  the  liberties  he  took  with 
the  Latin  original.  The  first  act  of  the  Miles  he  does  not  use  at 
all,  his  guardian  has  nothing  of  the  boastful  soldier  in  his  makeup, 
he  is  simply  plain  Monsieur  Richard.  The  episode  of  the  lost 
monkey  is  entirely  dispensed  with  also.  However,  the  device  of 
the  door  connecting  the  two  houses,  which  in  Plautus  is  not  men- 
tioned until  the  middle  of  the  piece,  and  then  plays  a  very  unim- 
portant part  in  the  play,  is  announced  in  Cailhava's  play  in  the 
first  scene  of  the  first  act.  ''Dans  le  Poete  Latin,"  says  Cailhava 
in  the  preface  to  his  play,  "la  ressemblance  et  la  fausse  porte  n'ani- 
ment  que  deux  ou  trois  scenes  inutiles.  J^ai  retourne  mon  sujet, 
je  me  suis  replie  de  fagon  a  les  rendre  la  base  de  la  machine  entiere. 
Chez  mon  maitre  elles  ne  servent  qu'  a  tromper  un  miserable  esclave, 
acteur  tres  subalterne:  dans  ma  comedie  servent  elles  a  duper  le 
Heros  de  la  piece,  Ces  changements  une  fois  prepares  et  fondus 
dans  ma  tete,  je  confiai,  sans  hesiter,  a  un  Valet,  tous  les  fils  de 
I'intrigue;  je  lui  laissai  le  soin  d'en  combiner  les  effets  et  de  manier, 
a  son  gre,  des  ressorts,  qui  ne  sont  comiques  et  decents  que  dans 
les  mains  des  Domestiques."  This  last  sentence  of  Cailhava's  is 
particularly  important   as   indicating   a   prominent   feature   of  the 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  "        13 

Miles,  the  Barhier,  and  the  Tuteur,  the  entrusting  all  the  ''threads 
of  the  intrigue"  to  the  hands  of  a  valet. 

There  are  many  points  of  resemblance  between  the  Barhier 
and  the  Tuteur  Dupe  which  would  naturally  arise  from  imitation 
of  the  same  model.  The  lover,  aided  by  the  valet,  tries  to  outwit 
the  guardian  and  carry  off  the  young  lady,  the  guardian  himself 
all  the  while  unconsciously  aiding  the  lover.  Cailhava,  however, 
as  he  expressly  states  in  his  preface,  has  elaborated  the  incident  of 
the  secret  door  between  the  two  houses  which  enables  the  heroine 
to  pass  herself  off  as  her  own  twin  sister.  This  incident,  as  Cailhava 
remarks,  plays  an  unimportant  part  in  the  comedy  of  Plautus. 
The  theory  that  Beaumarchais,  having  written  his  comic  opera, 
Le  Barhier  de  Seville  in  1773,  the  same  year  in  which  Cailhava's 
Tuteur  Dupe  was  put  again  upon  the  stage,  seeing  the  success  of 
his  contemporary's  play,  resolved  to  remodel  his  play  after  Plautus 
— wisely  leaving  out  the  secret  door  device — receives  confirmation 
from  the  fact  that  in  the  Barhier  there  are  several  passages  which 
resemble  passages  in  the  Tuteur,  notably  the  one  in  which  Merlin 
exclaims,  ''Allons,  Merlin,  du  courage,  Les  douze  mille  livres  que 
Damis  vous  promet  font  precisement  douze  mille  raisons  qui  prou- 
vent  que  M.  Richard  doit  etre  dupe."  T.  D.,  1-6.  Compare  with  this 
the  remark  of  Bazile  in  the  Barhier,  as  he  accepts  a  bribe.  ''Ce 
'diable  d'homme  a  toujours  ses  poches  pleines  d' arguments  irresisti- 
hles."  B.  S.,  IV-8.  Moreover,  both  plays  end  with  the  signing  of 
marriage  contracts  as  the  result  of  mistaken  identity.  M.  Richard 
believes  he  is  marrying  his  ward  and  finds  himself  united  to  her  aunt, 
while  the  lover,  as  in  the  Barbier,  signs  the  contract  which  unites 
him  to  the  young  girl. 

The  device  of  the  soeurs  jumelles  used  by  both  Plautus  and 
Cailhava,  while  not  employed  by  Beaumarchais  to  the  same  extent 
as  by  them,  seems  to  be  hinted  at  in  the  Barhier — IV-7 — the  scene 
of  the  two  marriage  contracts,  ''C'est  que  j'ai  deux  contrats  de 
mariage,  monseigneur:  ne  confondons  point:  voici  le  votre,  et 
c'est  ici  celui  du  seigneur  Bartholo,  avec  la  senora — Rosine  aussi? 
Les  demoiselles,  apparemment,  sout  deux  sceurs  qui  portent  le 
meme  nom?" 

The  impression  that  remains  in  the  mind  after  reading  Cail- 
hava's play  with  its  characters  disguised  under  French  names, 
some  of  its  incidents  elaborated   and  others  entirely  omitted,  is 


14        *  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

simply  that  the  author  has  added  another  to  the  long  hst  of  'guar- 
dian and  ward'  comedies  which  have  occupied  a  prominent  place 
in  French  literature  since  the  time  of  Moliere.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
one  reader  in  a  hundred,  even  though  he  were  well  versed  in  Latin 
literature,  would  suspect  that  the  Tuteur  Dupe  was  imitated  from 
the  Miles  Gloriosus  if  Cailhava  himself  did  not  expressly  name 
his  model.  If  Beaumarchais  had  made  the  same  statement  in 
regard  to  the  Barhier  de  Seville,  the  reader  would  find  it  quite  as 
easy  to  believe  as  Cailhava's  statement.  Why  then,  did  not  Beau- 
marchais, if  it  were  true,  state  the  fact  openly?  Cailhava  men- 
tions Beaumarchais  in  the  preface  to  his  dramatic  works,  [I.,  p.  43] 
''  Le  President  me  signifie  nettement  qu'  on  donnera  les  Deux  Amis 
de  M.  de  Beaumarchais,"  but  Beaumarchais  nowhere  mentions 
Cailhava.  However,  in  the  preface  prefixed  to  the  Barhier  de 
Seville  Beaumarchais  admits  that  he  has  been  accused  of  plagiar- 
ism, he  adopts  a  mocking  tone,  openly  admits  that  some  critics 
have  accused  him  of  strutting  about  in  peacock's  feathers,  which, 
if  they  were  stripped  from  him  would  show  him  to  be  nothing  but 
a  'Wilain  corbeau  noir." 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  source  of  the  play  should  not  have 
been  patent  to  everyone  at  the  time  of  its  first  representation, 
when  it  is  remembered  that  this  was  the  case  with  a  number  of 
similar  imitations  of  Plautus.  Regnard's  Serenade  was  not  dis- 
covered to  be  an  imitation  of  the  Pseudolus  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Even  Reinhardstoettner  failed  to  discover 
that  Remy  Belleau's  Reconnue  was  derived  from  the  Casina  of 
Plautus,  as  was  recently  pointed  out  in  the  Revue  d'Histoire  Lit- 
teraire  [Voldo,  1908].  Examples  also  of  a  '^concours"  or  com- 
petition by  two  authors  upon  a  given  subject  are  not  lacking.  In 
the  spring  of  1701  Regnard  wrote  his  Folies  Amoureuses,  a  ''guar- 
dian and  ward"  comedy,  to  which  the  Barhier  de  Seville  has  often 
been  compared,  which  it  in  fact  does  somewhat  resemble,  and 
a  few  months  later  Dancourt  wrote  his  Colin  Maillard,  also  a  "guar- 
dian and  ward"  comedy. 

As  for  Cailhava,  he  really  could  have  no  ground  for  complaint 
if  Beaumarchais  chose  to  go  to  the  same  Latin  source  as  himself, 
as  to  the  acknowledging  that  source,  he  was  free  to  do  it  or  not, 
as  he  chose.  Moliere  did  not  think  it  necessary  to  proclaim  the 
Latin  source  of  the  Avare  or  the  Amphitryon.     The  whole  tone  of 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARRIER    DE    SEVILLE  15 

the  preface  to  the  Barbier  de  Seville,  already  referred  to,  seems 
to  show^  that  Beaumarchais  preferred  to  meet  the  charge  of  pla- 
giarism by  adopting  an  almost  impudent  ''guess  if  you  can"  atti- 
tude. 

The  plays  of  Cailhava  and  Beaumarchais  v^ere  the  manifesta- 
tion of  a  widespread  tendency  to  imitate  Plautus  and  other  classical 
writers,  especially  Terence,  which  developed  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  Destouches  wrote  in  1745,  Le  Tresor 
Cache,  based  upon  the  Trinummus;  later  Sedaine  wrote  an  opera, 
Amphitryon,  and  Cailhava,  beside  the  Tuteur,  wrote  a  play  based 
upon  the  Menaechmi.  In  Germany  also  this  interest  in  Plautus 
manifested  itself.  Lessing's  Der  Schatz,  written  in  175U,  was,  like 
Destouches's  Tresor  Cache,  an  imitation  of  the  Trinummus.  Less- 
ing's admiration  for  Plautus  was  shared  by  Herder  and  Schlegel. 
The  movement  finally  culminated  in  the  five  Plautine  comedies 
written  by  Lenz,  which  appeared  at  Leipzig  in  1774.  Among 
these  plays  was  an  imitation  of  the  Miles  Glorio'sus,  entitled  "Der 
Grossprahlerische  Offizier.^'  This  play  he  sent  to  Goethe  at  Strass- 
bourg  in  1772  for  criticism.  The  latter  advised  Lenz  to  modernize 
the  play  still  more  than  he  had  done,  with  the  result  that  the  play 
was  rewritten  by  Lenz  under  the  title  of  "Die  Entfilhrungen.''  "In 
dem  Dialog  des  'grossprahlerische  Offizier'  hat  Lenz  fiir  seine  Umar- 
beitung  in  Die  Entfuhrungen,  manches  gestrochen,  zusammen 
gezogen  und  verandert,"   says  his  biographer. 

It  is  quite  possible  that  Beaumarchais  may  have  had  his  atten- 
tion called  to  the  Miles  and  Lenz's  imitation  of  it.  In  August  of 
1774  Beaumarchais  made  a  short  stay  at  Frankfort,  where  in  all 
probability  he  met  Goethe,  who  had  just  dramatized  the  adventures 
of  Beaumarchais  in  Spain  in  his  play  Clavigo.  The  example  of 
Lenz,  added  to  that  of  Cailhava,  must  certainly  have  aroused  his 
interest  in  the  Latin  play. 

The  objection  may  be  made  that  Beaumarchais,  like  Shakspere, 
was  first  of  all  a  man  of  affairs,  rather  than  a  student  of  Latin 
authors.  To  a  certain  extent,  this  is  true.  Beaumarchais  was,  like 
Shakspere,  a  student  of  human  nature  rather  than  of  books,  but 
like  Shakspere,  he  knew  his  ''little  Latin,"  and  like  Moliere  he  did 
not  scruple  to  borrow  from  any  source,  whatsoever,  provided  by 
so  doing  he  could  suit  the  taste  of  the  theater-going  public. 

Beaumarchais,  after  all,  possessed  a  fairly  extensive  knowledge 


.16  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

of  the  classics.  Lomenie,  one  of  his  biographers,  quotes  a  letter 
written  by  Beaumarchais  to  one  of  his  sisters  while  he  was  in  Spain. 
"Suivant  I'usage  des  colleges,  on  m'avait  plus  occupe  de  vers  latins 
que  des  regies  de  la  versification  frangaise."  [Lomenie,  Vol.  I.,  p. 
64  and  287.]  His  German  biographer,  Bettelheim  [p.  13],  testifies 
to  his  ability  to  translate  into  French  an  anthology  of  Latin  authors 
of  his  own  selection.  Lintilhac,  his  latest  biographer,  praises  the 
elegance  of  these  same  translations  and  also  remarks  upon  the 
cleverness  with  which,  in  his  letters,  he  used  and  applied  certain 
Latin  quotations  to  different  circumstances  of  his  own  life  and  that 
of  his  sisters.  It  can  then  be  established  as  certain  that  a  man, 
who  had  made  Latin  verses  and  selected  extracts  from  Latin  authors, 
must  certainly  have  been  able  to  read  his  Plautus.  Moreover, 
in  the  preface  to  Figaro  he  refers  to  Moliere's  borrowings  from  Plau- 
tus, so  he  must  have  been  conscious  of  what  was  apparently  an 
unwritten"  law  that  a  dramatist  must  imitate  at  least  two  plays 
from  Plautus.  Moliere  had  imitated  the  Aulularia  and  the  Amphi- 
tryon, Regnard  the  Mostellaria  and  the  Menaechmi,  Cailhava  the 
Miles  Gloriosus  and  the  Menaechmi.  Why  should  not  he  imitate 
the  Miles  Gloriosus  and  the  Casina?     [See  note  1.] 

Before  summing  up  all  that  has  just  been  said  in  regard  to  the 
connection  between  the  Miles  Gloriosus  of  Plautus  and  the  Barhier 
de  Seville  of  Beaumarchais,  it  is  necessary  to  admit,  first  of  all, 
that  we  have  no  direct  statement  anywhere,  on  the  part  of  Beau- 
marchais himself  or  his  contemporaries  that  this  was  the  case, 
but  as  has  been  shown  above,  similar  cases  of  imitation  have  occurred 
without  avowal  on  the  part  of  the  author  or  detection  on  the  part 
of  the  public.  The  evidence  which  has  been  brought  forward  in 
favor  of  the  assumption  that  the  Barhier  was  at  least  suggested 
by  the  Miles  resolves  itself  into  five  arguments. 
/  First,  the  similarity  in  plot  has  been  shown. 

Second,  a  sufficient  number  of  verbal  resemblances  have  been 
found  to  indicate  that  Beaumarchais  was  acquainted  with  the 
Latin  original. 

Third,  the  fact  that  Cailhava,  by  imitating  Plautus,  had  pro- 
duced a  successful  play,  might  very  easily  suggest  to  Beaumarchais, 
who  hitherto  had  written  nothing  but  unsuccessful  plays,  that  he 
go  to  the  same  source  for  his  inspiration. 

Fourth,  the  literary  tradition  handed  down  by  Moliere  in  regard 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  17 

to  imitating  Plautus  would  be  accepted  as  his  own  particular  be- 
quest by  Beaumarchais,  who  claimed  to  be  the  direct  heir  of  Moliere. 

Fifth,  it  may  be  asked  whether  it  was  mere  chance  that  the 
only  two  plays  produced  by  Beaumarchais  which  were  in  any  way 
successful  are  those  which  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  were  imitated 
from  Plautus,  for,  as  will  be  shown  later  the  Mariage  de  Figaro 
bears  a  strong  resemblance  to  the  Casina  of  Plautus.  Witty  as 
Beaumarchais  is  in  his  Memoires,  in  all  his  comedies,  except  the 
two  above  mentioned,  he  is  flat  and  insipid.  It  is  only  when  he 
is  inspired  by  Plautus  with  that  contagious  gayety  which  seems 
to  emanate  from  the  master  that  he  attains  the  goal  he  had  set 
to  restore  French  comedy  to  the  '^gaiete^'  it  possessed  in  the  days 
of  MoUere. 

Each  one  of  the  biographers  of  Beaumarchais  has  his  theory 
as  to  the  source  of  the  Barbier  de  Seville,  for  not  one  of  them  seems 
to  have  doubted  that  it  was  based  upon  some  other  tuteur  d  clef 
comedy. 

Lomenie  points  out  some  points  of  resemblance  with  Fatou- 
ville's  Precaution  Inutile,  played  at  the  Theatre  des  Italiens  in  1692, 
a  source  which  would  seem  to  be  plainly  indicated  by  the  subtitle 
of  the  Barhier.  He  rather  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  the  first 
version  of  the  play  which  was  written  as  a  comic  opera  in  1772, 
is  due  to  Spanish  influence.  '^C'est  le  souvenir  de  ces  tonadillas 
qui  parait  avoir  donne  naissance  au  Barhier  de  Seville,  compose 
d'abord  pour  faire  valoir  des  airs  espagnols  que  le  voyageur  avait 
apporte  de  Madrid  et  qu'il  arrangeait  a  la  frangaise."  Lomenie, 
451-2. 

In  answer  to  this  theory  it  may  be  said  that  the  Barhier  does 
resemble  the  Precaution  Inutile,  just  as  any  tuteur  a  clef  comedy 
resembles  another,  as  Beaumarchais  himself  says  in  the  preface 
to  the  Barhier  de  Seville:  "Un  vieillard  amoureux  pretend  epouser 
demain  sa  pupille:  un  jeune  amant  plus  adroit  le  pr^vient,  et  ce 
jour  meme  en  fait  sa  femme,  a  la  barbe  et  dans  la  maison  du  tuteur. 
Voila  le  fond,  dont  on  eiit  pu  faire  avec  un  egal  succes  une  tragedie, 
une  comedie,  un  drame  un  opera  et  caetera."  As  to  Spanish  influ- 
ence, however  much  the  Spanish  airs  which  he  heard  in  Spain  may 
have  been  used  in  the  first  edition  of  the  Barhier,  which  was  prac- 
tically nothing  but  a  comic  opera  of  which  the  manuscript  is  not. 
preserved,  except  in  fragments,  and  which  differs  radically  from  the 


18  BBAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

Barhier  of  1775,  the  fact  remains  that  in  this  last  Barhier  de  Seville 
the  names  of  persons  and  places  are  Spanish — just  enough  to  give 
local  color — the  characters  and  incidents  are  thoroughly  French. 
As  Morel  Fatio  has  said,  ''une  influence  lointaine,  a  peine  saisissa- 
ble,  voila  ce  que  TEspagne  pourrait  reclamer  dans  le  theatre  de 
Beaumarchais." 

Bettelheim  is  of  the  opinion  that  the  Barhier  is  based  upon  an 
opera  by  Panard,  le  Conte  de  Belflor,  which  Beaumarchais  probably 
heard  when  a  child,  and  of  which  he  gives  the  following  brief  out- 
line, p.  168: 

"Le  Conte  de  Belflor  est  amoureux  de  Jacinthe,  pupille  de  Don 
Cormera,  alcalde  de  Campo  Mayor,  qui  la  garde  dans  le  dessein 
d'en  faire  son  epouse.  Le  Comte,  par  un  stratageme  fort  ingenieux 
s'introduit  chez  T alcalde,  se  decouvre  a  Jacinthe  et  la  fait  consentir 
a  se  faire  enlever.  L' alcalde  vent  courir  apres  le  ravisseur:  mais 
le  corregidor  I'arrete,  lui  declare  qu'il  le  depossede  de  sa  charge 
pour  ses  malversations  et  le  fait  emmener  par  les  alguazils.  Apres 
leur  depart  on  celebre  la  noce  du  comte  qui  forme  le  divertisse- 
ment." 

Here  is  undoubtedly  a  play  similar  in  plot  to  the  Barhier,  but 
the  resemblance  between  the  two,  except  in  its  being  located  in 
Spain,  is  not  any  more  striking  than  that  which  exists  between  the 
Barhier  and  the  Folies  Amour euses  of  Regnard,  a  guardian  and 
ward  play,  an  amateur  performance  of  which  was  given  by  one  of 
the  sisters  of  Beaumarchais  at  the  time  of  his  return  from  Spain, 
and  which  must,  tljerefore,  have  been  more  fresh  in  his  memory 
than  the  Comte  de  Belflor.  As  for  the  audaces  which  Figaro  utters, 
Bettelheim  finds  them  in  Piron's  Arlequin  Deucalion  and  in  Favart's 
Ninette  a  la  Couv.  He  might  also  have  added  the  comedies  of 
Marivaux  in  which  Trivelin  and  other  valets  utter  sayings  which 
are  even  more  audacious  than  the  epigrams  of  Figaro. 

Lintilhac,  the  latest  of  the  biographers  of  Beaumarchais,  while 
admitting  that  he  was  influenced  in  composing  the  Barhier  by  the 
"guardian  and  ward"  comedies  of  Moliere,  namely,  the  Ecole 
des  Femmes,  Ecole  des  Maris,  le  Sicilien,  as  well  as  by  the  Precaution 
Inutile  of  Fatouville,  suggests  as  a  possible  first  sketch  of  the 
Barhier,  a  parade  called  Jean  Bete  a  la  Foire,  written  by  Beaumar- 
chais himself  a  little  while  before  the  Barhier,  which  he  considers  a 
first   outline  of   the   Barbier,  the  name   Bartholo  being  borrowed 


iSi.'r'FORNV^^ 


THE    SOURCES    OF   THE    BARBIER    DE    SEVILLE  19 

from  another  farce  of  this  kind.     As  for  the  rest  of  the  play,  here 
are  the  sources  indicated  by  Lintilhac.     (p.  225). 

''II  prit  d'abord  son  titre  d'une  nouvelle  de  Scarron,  d'ou  Moliere 
avait  tire  en  partie  le  sujet  de  VEcole  des  Femmes  et  ou  Beaumarchais 
puisera  I'idee  d'une  des  scenes  les  plus  piquantes  du  Mariage  de 
Figaro.  Ce  titre,  la  Precaution  inutile,  avait  d'ailleurs  servi  depuis 
a  plusieurs  autres  auteurs  dramatiques.  Mais  le  titre  est  tout  ce 
qu'il  a  de  commun  avec  Dorimon,  Gallet,  Achard,  Anseaume,  etc. 
En  revanche,  il  eut  pu  dire  de  Moliere,  comme  Racine  de  Tacite: 
''J'etais  alors  si  rempli  de  la  lecture  de  cet  excellent  comique,  qu'il 
n'y  a  presque  pas  un  trait  e'clatant  dans  ma  piece  dont  il  ne  m'ait 
donne  I'idee.  Le  canevas  est  au  denouement  pres,  celui  du  Sicilien, 
et  rappelle  en  maint  endroit  ceux  de  VEcole  des  Maris  et  de  VEcole 
des  Femmes,  Les  travestis  permettant  a  I'amant  d'entretenir  ou  de 
faire  entretenir  de  sa  passion  celle  qui  en  est  I'objet,  au  nez  des 
tuteurs,  est  un  vieux  procede  scenique  que  Moliere  avait  employ^, 
en  variant  ses  effets,  dans  sept  de  ses  comedies."  These  comedies 
being  VEtourdi — Ecole  des  Maris,  U Amour  Medecin,  le  Sicilien,  le 
Medecin  malgre  lui,  le  Malade  Imaginaire. 

There  seems  then  to  be  no  lack  of  unanimity  among  the  biogra- 
phers of  Beaumarchais  as  to  the  Barbier's  having  been  borrowed 
from  some  source;  there  is,  on  the  other  hand,  a  striking  lack  of 
unanimity  as  to  the  source  from  which  it  is  borrowed.  In  plot, 
it  could  easily  be  found  to  resemble  any  one  of  several  dozen  ''guar- 
dian and  ward"  comedies  from  the  time  of  Moliere  on.  As  to 
names  of  characters,  incidents  and  phrases,  he  is  convicted  of  having 
taken  them  indiscriminately  wherever  he  found  them — the  sub- 
title from  Fatonville's  play,  or  from  a  nouvelle  of  Scarron.  The 
name  Bartholo  from  an  anonymous  parade,  (Lintilhac,)  225,  La 
Jeunesse  must  have  been  taken  from  Gresset's  Parrain  Magnifique 
in  which  figures  prominently  an  octogenarian  valet  by  that  name, 
the  incident  of  the  key  from  an  opera  of  Sedaine,  "On  ne  s'avise 
jamais  de  tout,"  played  in  September,  176L  The  drugging  of 
L'fiveille  from  George  Dandin,  "II  n'est  pas  jusqu'au  narcotic  de 
I'Eveille  dont  le  sommeil  intempestif  et  obstine  du  CoHn  de  George 
Dandin  n'ait  pu  suggerer  la  recette."  Lintilhac,  227.  From  the 
Precaution  Inutile  is  taken  the  following  phrase: 

Arlequin — //  n'a  qu'un   defaut,  c'est   quHl    est    amoureux,  which 
is  paralleled  exactly  in  the  Barbier  de  Seville. 


20  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

Rosine — II  est  amour eux,  et  vous  appelez  cela  un  defaut? 

It  is  even  probable  that  he  borrowed  from  Virgil  in  the  cele- 
brated description  of  Calomine,  ''Vous  voyez  la  calomnie  se  dresser, 
sifHer,   s'enfler,   grandir  a  vue  d^oeil.     Elle  s'elance,   s'etend   son, 
vol.  B.  S.,  II-8.,  which  is  an  almost  literal  translation  of 
Extemplo  Libyae  magnas  it  Fama  per  urbes, 
Parva  metu  primo,  mox  sese  attoUit  in  auras. 

No  wonder  that  Augusto  Vitu  in  his  preface  to  the  Barbier 
calls  it  a  remarkable  piece  of  ''marqueterie." 

It  almost  seems  as  if  Beaumarchais  had  deliberately  set  to  work 
to  compose  this  piece  of  ''marqueterie"  as  a  literary  tour  de  force, 
taking  a  bit  here  and  a  bit  there  from  every  "guardian  and  ward" 
comedy  with  which  he  was  acquainted,  acknowledging  by  his  sub- 
title his  indebtedness  to  the  Precaution  Inutile,  and  in  the  preface, 
pleading  guilty  to  the  charge  that  his  comedy  was  indebted  to 
Sedaine's  opera  by  acknowledging  that  it  is,  "On  ne  s'avise  jamais 
de  tout." 

Neither  of  these  statements  in  the  preface  is  inconsistent  with 
the  theory  which  has  just  been  advanced,  that  the  Barbier  is  modeled 
upon  the  Miles  of  Plautus  and  was  suggested  to  Beaumarchais  by 
the  recently  performed  adaptation  of  this  play  by  Cailhava.  The 
resemblance  between  the  two  plays  which  has  already  been  pointed 
out  would  indicate  that  Beaumarchais  chose  out  of  the  numerous 
"guardian  and  ward"  plots  at  his  disposal,  the  plot  furnished  by 
the  Miles,  suggested  by  the  recent  performance  of  Cailhava's  play. 
Cutting  out,  instead  of  enlarging  upon  the  device  of  the  secret  door 
as  Cailhava  did,  he  added  to  it  without  scruple  all  the  incidents 
and  phrases  he  chose  to  from  other  comedies. 

It  is  not  strange  that  Beaumarchais  should  not  openly  confess 
that  his  play  was  an  imitation  of  the  same  play  which  had  served 
as  Cailhava's  model.  The  latter  author,  by  his  French  version  of 
the  Miles  had  produced  a  new  "guardian  and  ward"  comedy,  a 
plot  which  every  playwright  considered  common  property.  Then, 
too,  may  not  this  be  the  meaning  of  that  mocking  reply  addressed 
to  his  accuser,  "On  ne  s'avise  jamais  de  tout — "Yes."  Beaumar- 
chais seems  to  say,  "the  comedy  is  borrowed,  a  name  here,  a  line 
there,  but  the  principal  source,  the  Miles  Gloriosus  of  Plautus  and 
Cailhava's  French  adaptation,  Le  Tuteur  Dupe,  have  not  yet  been 
guessed,  as  its  source.  Truly,  'On  ne  s'avise  jamais  de  tout.'" 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  21 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Lomenie — Beaumarchais  et  Son  Temps   Paris,  1880 

Bettelheim — Beaumarchais Frankfurt,  1886 

Lintilhac — Beaumarchais Paris,  1887 

Reinhardstoettner — Plautus-Studien Leipzig,  1886 

Marc-Monnier — Les  A'ieux  de  Figaro Paris,  1868 

Naudet — Bihlioteca  Classica  Latina,  Plautus Paris,  1830 

Nisard — Theatre  des  Latins,  Plaute Paris,  1879 

Fournier — Beaumarchais,  Oeuvres  Completes Paris,  1884, 

Cailhava — Theatre Paris,  1781 

Vitu — Preface,  Barhier  de  Seville,  .  Theatre   de    Beaumar- 
chais   Paris,  1882 

Lenient — La  Comedie  au  XVIII  Siecle Paris,  1888 

Larroumet — ^.fitudes  d'Histoire  de  Critique  Dramatique .  Paris,  1892 

Parfaict  Freres — Histoire  du  Theatre  Frangais Paris,  1725-49 

Riccoboni — Histoire  du  Theatre  ItaUen Paris,  1731 

Grimm — Gorrespondance  Litteraire Paris,  1812 

Gruppe — Lenz,  Leben  u.  Werke. BerUn,1861 

Gresset — Le  Parrain  Magnifique Renouard,  Paris,  1810 

Toldo— La  Comedie  Fr.  au  XVL    Revue  d'Hist.  Litt ...  Paris,  1898 


22  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 


NOTES 

Note  1. — The  Mariage  de  Figaro  and  the  Casina 

''Jam  docti  viri  notarunt  huic  baud  absimili  argumento  per 
actam  fuisse  in  nostrata  scena,  sub  finem  proxime  superioris  saeculi; 
fabulam  de  nuptiis  Hispalensis  cujusdam  tonsoris  celebratissimi 
nominatim."  In  these  words  Naudet,  in  his  preface  to  the  works 
of  Plautusj  calls  attention  to  the  resemblance  between  the  Mariage 
de  Figaro  and  the  Casina  of  Plautus,  as  did  also,  somewhat  later, 
Marc-Monnier,  in  his  Aieux  de  Figaro. 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Barhier  de  Seville,  however,  neither  of  these 
two  authors  has  examined  the  two  plays  in  detail,  to  see  whether 
there  is  enough  resemblance  between  them  to  warrant  the  assump- 
tion that  Beaumarchais  took  the  Casina  as  a  model  for  the  Mariage 
de  Figaro.  It  is  perfectly  possible  that  Beaumarchais  may  have 
taken  the  hint  again  from  Cailhava,  who  in  the  preface  to  the  Tuteur 
Dupe,  expressly  mentions  the  Casina.  It  is  a  curious  fact  in  the 
history  of  the  drama  that  the  Miles  Gloriosus  and  the  Casina  seem  to 
have  been  linked  together.  They  were  both  performed  in  Italy 
at  Court  of  Ferrara  in  the  sixteenth  century  when  Ercole  d'Este 
resurrected  Plautus,  They  were  both  transformed  into  French 
plays  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  Miles  becoming  Le  Brave  of 
De  Baif  and  the  Casina  La  Reconnue  of  Remy  Belleau.  Finally 
in  the  eighteenth  century  we  have  the  Miles  Gloriosus — the  Barhier 
de  Seville,  and,  as  will  be  shown  later,  the  Casina — the  Mariage  de 
Figaro. 

The  marriage  of  a  serving  man  to  a  fellow  servant  girl  who  is 
in  the  employ  of  the  master's  wife  and  with  whom  the  master  is 
in  love,  and  the  trick  played  upon  the  master  w^ho  tries  to  claim 
le  droit  du  seigneur,  forms  the  plot  of  both  the  Latin  and  the  French 
play.  As  the  Latin  play  opens  with  a  scene  between  two  slaves 
in  which  the  coarsest  invective  is  indulged  in,  so  the  Mariage  opens 
with  a  scene  in  which  Suzanne  and  Marceline  vie  with  each  other 
in  reverences,  a  scene  in  which  the  invective  is  more  refined,  but 


NOTES  23 

none  the  less  biting.  In  the  Latin  play,  the  ill-tempered  wife  and 
the  vain  and  foolish  old  husband,  decide  by  lot  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  serving  girl  shall  marry  the  son's  armour  bearer,  who 
is  devoted  to  the  interests  of  his  young  master  who  is  in  love  with 
the  girl,  or  the  old  master's  farm  superintendent.  This  scene  of 
the  drawing  of  the  lots,  which  is  described  in  great  detail  by  Plautus, 
must  have  been  watched  with  breathless  interest  by  a  Neapolitan 
audience  before  whom  the  play  was  probably  first  performed,  and 
who  evidently  were  not  behind  their  descendants  in  their  love  for 
lotteries  and  gambling.  Beaumarchais,  like  Plautus,  shows  his 
knowledge  of  what  will  suit  his  audience,  by  letting  the  marriage 
of  Figaro  be  decided  in  a  court  and  before  a  judge  whose  decisions 
strikingly  resemble  the  decisions  arrived  at  by  drawing  lots.  In- 
deed, the  Judge  Bridoison  of  Beaumarchais  is  but  another  name 
for  the  famous  Judge  Bridoie  of  Rabelais,  who  decided  his  cases 
by  drawing  lots.  What  a  lottery  scene  was  to  the  Neapolitans  of 
the  time  of  Plautus,  was  a  courtroom  scene  to  the  Parisians  of  the 
eighteenth  century. 

The  third  important  scene  in  the  Casina  is  that  in  which  the 
master  is  tricked  by  a  slave  who  dresses  himself  in  the  clothes  of 
the  servant  girl  and  administers  summary  punishment  to  his  in- 
fatuated master.  This  is  paralleled  in  the  Manage  de  Figaro  by 
the  masquerade  scene  ''sous  les  marroniers,"  in  which  the  Countess 
is  disguised  as  Suzanne,  Suzanne  as  the  Countess  and  Figaro  as 
the  Count.  Even  the  ''recognition"  scene  which  is  found  in  the 
mutilated  conclusion  of  the  Latin  play,  in  which  Casina  is  found 
to  be  after  all  of  good  family  and  is  thus  enabled  to  marry  the  son 
of  the  family,  has  its  counterpart  in  the  "recognition"  scene  in 
the  Mariage,  where  Figaro  is  recognized  by  both  his  parents. 

One  of  the  most  dramatic  scenes  in  the  Latin  play  is  that  in 
which  the  terrified  maid  servant  rushes  out  upon  the  stage  and 
informs  the  audience  that  Casina  stands  with  a  drawn  sword  in 
her  hand,  like  one  mad,  threatening  all  who  approach  her  to  adorn 
her  for  the  marriage  ceremony  which  will  unite  her  to  the  hated 
slave,  a  scene  which  has  been  well  imitated  by  Regnard  in  his,  Folies 
Amoureuses,  which  seems  to  be  a  "contamination"  of  the  Miles  with 
the  Casina.  Nothing  like  this  scene  occurs  in  the  Mariage,  although 
there  may  be  a  suggestion  of  it  in  the  sub-title.  La  Folle  Journee. 

Two  strongly  marked  characteristics  distinguished  the  Casina 


24  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

from  most  of  the  other  plays  of  Plautus.  More  than  aily  of  them 
is  skeptical  and  cynical,  the  gods  are  openly  ridiculed,  the  old  master 
compares  himself  to  Jupiter  and  his  wife  to  Juno.  Even  the  institu- 
tion of  marriage,  which  was  one  of  the  most  sacred  institutions  of 
the  Romans,  is  treated  with  the  utmost  levity  and  cynicism. 

A  second  marked  peculiarity  of  the  play  is  the  fact  that  the 
hero  and  heroine  do  not  appear  upon  the  stage,  as  if  to  emphasize 
the  fact  that  this  is  a  marriage  in  the  world  of  slavedom  that  is  to 
be  celebrated. 

It  is  just  these  two  things  which  render  the  Mariage  de  Figaro 
different  from  all  the  other  plays  which  preceded  it.  The  marriage 
of  a  man  servant  and  a  maid  servant  is  the  subject  of  the  play, 
not  as  subordinate  to  the  marriage  of  a  high-born  master  and  mis- 
tress, but  as  an  important  event  in  itself.  Secondly,  in  cynicism 
Plautus  found  a  worthy  successor  in  Beaumarchais,  who,  through 
Figaro,  utters  those  famous  tirades  against  the  existing  order  of 
things  which  made  Napoleon  remark,  ^'Figaro,  C'est  la  Revolution 
deja  en  action." 

In  trying  to  show  the  close  analogy  between  the  Casina  and  the 
Mariage  de  Figaro,  a  likeness  so  striking  as  to  certainly  suggest 
conscious  imitation  of  Plautus  on  the  part  of  Beaumarchais,  though 
perhaps  not  so  close  an  imitation  as  in  the  Barhier,  it  is  not  claimed, 
of  course,  that  Beaumarchais  did  not  take  characters  and  incidents 
from  other  authors.  First  of  all  these  other  probable  sources  stands 
Voltaire's  Droit  du  Seigneur,  and  also  a  play  of  Boursault,  Le 
Mercure  Galant. 

Merlin — Non — Monsieur. 

Vous  pretendriez  sur  elle  avoir  droit  de  seigneur. 

Droit  de  dime, 

Un  valet  marie  dont  la  femme  est  jolie 

A  de  justes  raison  de  paraitre  jaloux. 

The  character  of  Suzanne  was  perhaps  suggested  by  the  Pamela 
Comedies  of  Goldoni  which  were  written  about  this  time  and  which 
owed  their  vogue  to  the  popularity  of  Richardson. 

As  has  been  suggested  by  Lomenie,  one  of  the  probable  sources 
of  Cherubih  is  in  Petit  Jean  de  Saintre,  which  had  just  been 
republished  by  the  Count  de  Tressan.  The  pin  with  which  the 
Countess  fastens  the  billet  doux  which  she  sends  to  Cherubin  must 
certainly  have  been  suggested  by  the  above  mentioned  story. 


NOTES  25 


Note  2. — The  Guardian  and  Ward  Comedy 

The  ''guardian  and  ward"  comedy  has  been  popular  on  the 
stage  of  every  country  of  Europe  from  the  beginning  of  the  Renais- 
sance to  the  time  of  the  first  performance  of  the  Barbier  de  Seville. 
No  other  comedy  plot  has  surpassed  this  in  popularity,  not  even 
the  well-worn  ''twin"  plot. 

The  Barbier  de  Seville,  however,  ranks  as  the  most ,  famous  of 
all  the  comedies  of  this  class.  It  marks  the  highest  development 
of  which  this  plot  was  capable  and  since  then  it  has  remained  the 
typical  "guardian  and  ward"  play,  so  perfect,  or  at  least  so  suc- 
cessful, that  no  noteworthy  attempt  has  been  made  since  to  write 
another   comedy   of   this   kind. 

The  question  may  well  be  asked:  How  did  a  plot,  which  has 
proved  so  popular,  originate?  As  to  the  origin  of  the  equally  pop- 
ular "twin  plot"  there  has  never  been  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that 
the  Menaechmi  of  Plautus  furnished  the  model.  Fifty  or  more 
imitations  of  which  are  found  in  Reinhardstoettner's  list.  Next 
in  popularity,  according  to  that  list,  appears  to  be  the  Miles  Glori- 
osus,  which  has  almost  an  equal  number  of  imitations.  Shakspere, 
with  his  unerring  dramatic  instinct,  seized  upon  these  two  popular 
themes,  the  "twins,"  in  the  Comedy  of  Errors,  and  the  Miles  Glori- 
osus,  or  "boastful  soldier,"  in  the  Falstaff  plays,  particularly  in 
the  "Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  where  the  denoument,  in  which 
the  soldier  comes  to  grief  at  the  hands  of  the  injured  husbands, 
bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Miles. 

But  there  are  two  sides  to  this  Miles  Gloriosus,  this  soldat  fan- 
faron.  He  is  also  the  guardian  of  a  young  girl  whom  he  has  carried 
off  and  who  is  taken  away  from  him  by  the  lover  and  his  valet. 
It  is  these  two  elements  in  the  play  which  seem  to  have  given  rise 
to  the  two  kinds  of  comedy,  the  soldat  fanfaron  and  the  tuteur  a  clef 
plays. 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  just  when  these  two  elements  in  the 
Latin  play  became  separated.  Before  the  seventeenth  century  there 
seems  to  be  no  distinctive  "guardian  and  ward"  play  in  French 
literature,  then  Moliere,  with  a  dramatic  instinct  as  sure  as  that 
of  Shakspere,  took  hold  of  this  plot  and  on  it  based  his  tuteur 
d  clef  plays.  If  Moliere's  Ecole  des  Maris,  is  imitated  from  Lope 
de  Vega's  Discreta  Inamorada,  as  has  been  claimed,  this  separation 


26  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

of  the  Latin  play  into  the  two  plots  may  have  taken  place  first 
in  Spain. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  many  of  these  guardian .  and  ward 
plays  the  barber  comes  to  be  associated.  A  play  by  Sebastian 
Mittersnachts,  called  the  Unglilckliche  Soldat  und  Vorwitzige  Barhier, 
written  in  1662,  is  mentioned  by  Reinhard  Stoettner  and  probably 
was  a  version  of  the  Miles  Gloriosus. 

Equally  worthy  of  remark  is  also  the  fact  that  many  of  the  old 
farces  contain  a  monologue  recited  by  the  valet  in  which  he  boasts 
of  his  skill  as  a  barber  among  his  other  useful  accomplishments, 
such  monologues  being  often  associated  with  the  boasts  of  the 
soldier  and  the  intrigues  of  lovers.  The  earliest  of  these  mono- 
logues is  that  of  Maistre  Hambrelin  found  in  the  collection  of 
farces  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  by  Picot  and 
Nyrop. 

Je  sais  jouer  farces  sans  rolles 
Je  suis  bon  maistre  rasenaire 
Gens  barbier,  seigner,  veiner. 
Scarron  in  his  Don  Japhet  d'Armenie,  has  a  similar  monologue. 
Don  Alphonse — Jeune  comme  je  suis,  Monsieur,  je  sais  tout  faire. 
Je  rase,  je  blanchis,  je  couds,  je  sais  saigner; 
Je  sais  noircir  le  poil,  le  couper,  le  peigner; 
Je  travaille  en  parfums,  je  sais  la  medecine, 
J'ecris  en  heroique  aussi  bien  qu'en  burlesque. 
Compare  with  this  the  speech  of  Figaro,  who  is  a  veritable  descen- 
dant of  the  valet  qui  salt  'Hout  faire." 

Also  in  Regnard's  Folies  Amour euses  is  a  similar  monologue. 

Albert — Et  quel  homme  etes  vous? 

Crispin — J'ai  fait  tant  de  metiers  d'apres  le  naturel 

Quelque  fois  hofmete  homme,  quelquefois  fripon. 
Compare  also  Trivelin  in  the  Fausse  Suivante  of  Marivaux. 
Depuis  quinze  aus  que  je  roule  dans  le  monde 
Ami  des  fripons. 
Nor  must  the  monologue  of  Gil  Bias,  to  whom  Beaumarchais  is 
more  than  once  indebted,  be  omitted  in  this  list.     "Apres  cela,  ne 
voulant  plus  retourner  dans  les  Asturies,  pour  eviter  toute  discussion 
avec  la  justice." 

In  all  these  monologues  the  valet  "salt  tout  faire,"  he  makes 
verses    and   has   difficulties   with   the   officers   of   justice.     Figaro, 


NOTES  27 

with   his   "Convaincu   que   I'utile   revenu   du   rasoir  est  preferable 
aux  vains  honneurs  de  la  plume,"  adds  nothing  new. 

A  second  element  in  the  guardian  and  ward  comedy  is  the 
description  of  obstacles  to  be  overcome  by  the  valet. 
Crispin — Moi,  comme  ingenieur  et  chef  d'artillerie 

Pour  battre  en  breche  Albert  et  I'obliger  bientot 

,  A  nous  rendre  la  place  ou  sontenir  T assault. — 1-8. 

— Folies  Amour euses. 

The  same  idea  is  found  in  one  of  the  comedies  of  Destouches 

"Je  vais  done  avec  lui  faire  assault  de  genie.'' — L'Ingrat  11-7. 

Compare  with  the  elaborate  description  given  in  Plautus  of 
the  difficulties  to  be  overcome  by  the  slave  Palaestrion,  and  in  the 
Barber  of  Seville — ''Je  vais  d'un  coup  de  baguette,  endormir  la 
vigilance." 

III.  The  need  of  money  is  always  emphasized  by  the  valet  in 
Moliere,  Regnard,  Dancourt  as  well  as  in  Beaumarchais. 
L'Etourdi,  II-5 — Pandolfe — De  Targent,  dites  vous,  ah,  voila  Ten- 

colure, 
C'est  le  noeud  secret  de  toute  I'aventure. 
Ecoles  des  Femmes — Horace — Vous  savez  mieux  que  moi  quels  que 

soient  mes  efforts. 

Que  r argent  est  la  clef  de  tons  les  grands  ressorts, 

Et  que  ce  doux  metal  qui  frappe  tant  de  tetes 

En  amour,  comme  en  guerre,  avance  les   con- 

quetes. 

Folies  Amoureuses — Eraste — J'aurais    pour    le  succes    assez    bonne 

esperance. 
Si  de  quelque  argent  frais,  nous  avions  le  se- 

cours : 
C'est  le  nerf  de  la  guerre,  ainsique  des  amours. 
—1-7. 
Cohn  Maillard,  9 — On  tiroit  une  bourse  d'abord — C'est  pourtant  un 

meuble  bien  necessaire. 
B.  S.  Figaro,  1-5 — De  Tor,  mon  Dieu,  le  I'or:  C'est  le  nerf  de  I'in- 

trigue. 
Also  is  to  be  compared  the  douze  mille  raisons  in  the  Tuteur  of 
Cailhava. 

IV.  A  description  of  the  guardian,  conventional  in  every 
respect,  is  found  in  every  one  of  these  comedies.    In  the  comedies 


28  BEAUMARCHAIS    AND    PLAUTUS 

of  Moliere  the  character  of  the  guardian  really  forms  the  motif  of 
the  comedy,  especially  in  the  Ecole  des  Maris. 

La  Fontaine,  however,  in  his  Florentin  I-l,  has  given  the  real 
tuteur  with  all  his  keys. 

Marinette — Chaque  porte,  outre  un  nombre  infini  de  ferrures 
Sous  different  ressorts  a  quatre  ou  cinq  serrures 
Huit  on  dix  cadenas  et  quinze  on  vingt  verrous. 

Regnard,  who  evidently  borrowed  this  description  for  his  Folies 
Amoureuses,  has  softened  it  a  little. 
Lisette — II  s'arrete,  il  s'agite,  il  court  sans  savoir  ou; 
Toute  la  nuit  il  rode 

Brutal  a  toute  outrance,  avare,  dur,  hargneux. 
Albert — J'ai  fait  dans  mon  chateau,  toute  la  nuit,  la  ronde. 

Beaumarchais  has  not  forgotten  this  conventional  description. 

Le  comte — Tu  dis  que  la  crainte  des  galants  lui  fait  fermer  sa 
porte? 

Figaro — A  tout  le  monde:   S'il  pouvait  la  calfeutrer. — B.  S.,  1-4. 

Bartholo — Mais  tout  cela  n'arrivera  plus,  car  je  vais  faire  sceller 
cette  grille. 

Rosine — Faites  mieux:   murez  les  fenetres  tout  d'un  coup. — II-4. 

The  fifth  conventional  element  which  always  enters  into  the 
comedies  of  this  kind  is  the  disguise  under  which  the  lover  enters 
the  house  of  the  guardian  and  in  the  presence  of  the  guardian  talks 
to  the  young  lady  without  that  the  latter  suspects  what  they  are  talk- 
ing about.  This  scene  in  the  Miles  is  one  of  the  best  of  its  kind 
and  has  furnished  a  model  for  innumerable  guardian  and  ward 
comedies  since.  The  entrance  of  the  lover,  disguised  as  a  ship 
master,  ''facito  ut  venias  hue  ornatu  nauclerico  causiam  habeas, 
ferrugineam,"  IV-5,  and  the  skilful  acting  done  by  Philocomasium, 
who  feigns  to  regret  leaving  the  soldier,  has  never  been  surpassed, 
even  by  Rosine. 

Cette  situation,  dans  laquelle  des  interets  de  coeur  se  traitent 
en  presence  d'un  rival,  d'un  pere,  on  d'un  tuteur,  a  la  faveur  d'une 
fiction  qui  I'empechent  d'y  rien  comprendre,  est  tou jours  d'un  grand 
effet  au  theatre  quand  la  fiction  est  ingenieuse  et  vraisemblable." 

Le  Sicilien,  ou  Ton  pourrait  encore  signaler  deux  des  plus  amus- 
antes  idees  sceniques  du  Barbier  de  Seville:  la  conversation,  Act  I, 
sons  le  balcon  et  celle  du  troisieme  entre  les  deux  amoureux  au  nez 
du  tuteur  distrait. — Larroumet   Etudes,   p.    177. 


NOTES  29 

The  description  of  the  brutal  character  of  the  guardian,  the 
difficulties  to  be  overcome  in  order  to  outwit  him,  the  versatility 
of  the  valet,  the  disguise,  are  all  found  in  the  Miles  Gloriosus  as  in 
all  guardian  ward  plays — the  need  of  money  seems  to  be  a  later 
addition. 


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